Berkeley wrong to cancel Free Speech Week

It was right, the event was about provocation

Berkeley cancelling its Free Speech Week is disappointing as it cedes to the demands of Antifa and Black Bloc protesters, infers Ben Jackson of PanAm Post. Additionally, there have been some suggestions that the university itself wanted the event canceled, which if true, shows its willingness to limit free speech. The cancellation is strongly reflective of conservative voices being muffled for going against the status quo at liberal universities. Students get together and protest to ensure that different opinions aren’t heard. Berkeley validated this behavior by canceling its Free Speech Week and cementing its campus’s echo chamber.

Berkeley's Free Speech Week was organized by a small group of students backed by Milo Yiannopoulos to incite tension, asserts Rigel Robinson in the LA Times. The issue wasn’t about free speech or repression thereof, but simply of conservative activists trying to cause a stir. Free speech warrants respect, but that shouldn’t force a university to put even bigoted ideologies in the limelight. Particularly when hosting them would cost Berkeley, which is in debt, over a million dollars. The university doesn’t need to do this, it is a beacon of intellectual freedom and intelligent debate. Events like Free Speech Week don't deserve its funding.